bill clinton against newt gingrich. they went to two government shutdowns. the polls blame the republicans. host: president obama job approval rating is 56%. does he have political capital in these negotiations and should he used it? guest: they had a grand bargain before, john boehner thought he did and his caucus was too divided to push it through. these problems do require some pain. when politicians have to exact some pain, they wait to the last minute and a turn and say, "i try to save your social security but you saw what happened." both sides do that. president obama has a political capital. it is like money -- how do you spend it? he can spend it on helping our schools. he can spend it with regard to our affairs in the middle east. those are tough questions to answer. my priority is always education and our long term problems. i'm not a deficit hawk. people on both sides do bothwell. i don't understand the fuss about raising the age qualification for social security are medicare. and plead with the caps -- simply lift the caps. franklin roosevelt to